Woman hands out 'cards against harassment' to cat-callers

Woman confronts cat-callers with hidden video camera

Being cat-called, aggressively hit on, inappropriately touched and cursed at by the people whose advances they reject is a daily reality for many women who frequent city sidewalks.

A 2014 survey conducted by the nonprofit advocacy organization Stop Street Harassment found that 65% of women in the U.S. across all ages, races, income levels, sexual orientations and geographic locations had experienced some form of harassment on the street within their lifetimes, be it be verbal attacks, flashing, or even being forced to perform sex acts.

While many have spoken out against this type of behaviour, which SSH calls "a human rights violation and a form of gender violence," one Minneapolis woman is receiving a great deal of attention this week for coming up with a novel approach to combating street harassment.

28-year-old Lindsey (whose last name has not been revealed) is a self-described feminist and "sex-positive, friendly person who believes that non-harassing flirtation, courtship, and sex play a huge and healthy part in a person's quality of life."

"You leaned out of your window and made some ridiculous series of leering comments about whether I was wearing a thong," she wrote in the viral September, 2013 post. "It's people like you that make women avoid walking alone or taking transit even in broad daylight in their own cities; that no matter what screwed up metric you use it's not a 'compliment' to have someone interrogate me about my underwear; that thanks to you I would spend the entire train ride home feeling scrutinized and gross because you didn't have the willpower or maturity to keep your mouth shut; that your wife and daughters or at the very least your mother deserve better than a cowardly man who shouts at women from the safety of his car."

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Inspired by this and many other incidents -- most recently, one in which a stranger on an escalator began touching her hair and calling her "blondie" -- Lindsey decided to embark upon a project she named "Cards Against Harassment."

By visiting cardsagainstharassment.com, anyone can download and print off a series of 10 pocket-sized cards designed to tell cat-callers that their actions are not appropriate.

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"Cards Against Harassment is a project I launched in Summer 2014 to counteract street harassment in Minneapolis," wrote Lindsey on the site's about section. "The street harassment my friends and I encounter tends to take the form of brief but frustrating interactions: comments made just as men pass by on the street, over so quickly you rarely have a chance to respond."

"Just as frustrating as the harassment itself is the feeling of powerlessness that comes with not having had a chance to defend yourself or convey how the harassment affects you," Lindsey continued. "Cards Against Harassment are designed to allow those who are harassed, or those who witness harassment, to give street harassers the feedback, however limited, that their behavior is unwelcome."

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As part of her project, Lindsey also started recording the reactions of cat-callers she confronts as a "cathartic extra response," she told Buzzfeed.

Lindsey has been publishing the videos on YouTube and posting them, along with a description, on Cards Against Harassment's website.

"I almost made it all the way to my office in peace this morning when I passed these two businessmen who loudly faux-whispered 'Minnesota chicks are HOT' at me," reads the caption on the video below. "I wish I had the composure to remind them that some day we may be across from one another in a professional setting, and that this type of interaction makes it hard for me to feel like I would be treated with the level of respect or dignity people hope to encounter in colleagues.

"Minnesota Chicks Are Hot"VTnOjyu7gxMCbh00aLS3gQ

The description given for the video below reads as follows:

"Walking home on the same day as the preceding video, I passed this guy on the sidewalk tonight who out of nowhere called me a bitch. I hadn't made eye contact or done anything as we passed. His explanation? "'Bitch' means that you're sexy." When I told him that was inappropriate, he told me to smell his ass.

Stranger calls me "bitch" as he walks byVTnOjyu7gxMCbh00aLS3gQ

"Walking to my bus stop after work this guy started telling me to sit on his lap, then said he could smell my womanhood because he is 'a wolf.'" reads the following video's description. "My favorite part is he thought I was giving him a card so he could call me."

In two othervideos, men blatantly ask "When you're dressed the way you are .... what's the purpose for a woman to be on this earth [if not] for a man?" and" Women are put on this earth to satisfy a man, so if she feels offended, she shouldn't have [ever] been born."

Lindsey's videos are circulating widely around the web this week, as many online express shock, frustration and anger over the ways in which the men captured on film behave.

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